Baking A Sweet Life

I like to think of myself as someone who embraces challenging recipes… and I think I usually am that person.  But this latest edition of SOB that Charity, of Sweet Charity Pie, and I bring you had me seriously procrastinating.  I was scared of laminated dough.  I mean really scared. So I just put it off. And put it off some more.  The whole recipe seemed pretty daunting at first, too… two days, with frequent folds on day 2, proofing and baking… sounds just like bread.  And I DO bread… but still… this was LAMINATED DOUGH. I knew that I would eventually have to do it. So in my latest email to Charity, I promised her that the Pain au Chocolats would be completed by Thursday.  And there (or maybe here?) you have it – I was true to my word!

They were every bit as incredible as I had hoped they’d be.  And my dough was really a mess – really! The “dough” itself was beautiful – it had a lustrious feel to it and was just a dream to work with.  But when I added the butter  block to it – all that changed.  It ripped and tore, the butter separated from the block that it once was.  When chatting with Charity yesterday, I kept telling her how concerned I was about the butter being very uneven within the dough.  She kept saying “don’t worry! I’m sure it’ll turn out just fine!” By golly it did.  I was so impressed!  And truth be told, so were my coworkers.  They ate every last morsel up! I had one croissant last night just after they came out of the oven (Sherry Yard meant it when she said “cool serve”) – they are not yummy when the taste of melted butter takes over everything.  Just like bread, it needs to cool to really savor the nuances within the flavor.  Once it cooled… wow. WOW. Truly good stuff.  I was tickled that everyone at work agreed!

Thankfully, Charity did the work of typing up this recipe – I didn’t like how Sherry had the recipe actually scattered among three – there was a lot of turning between pages and getting a little lost.

Be sure to stay tuned for the next installment, and make sure you check out Charity’s Pain au Chocolat as well, where the lengthy recipe is so nicely typed up and organized!